Breeding of Sugarcane - Industrial Crops: Breeding for BioEnergy and Bioproducts - page 31

arundinaceus and constituted the base of cane improvement programs around the
world [ 4 ]. Continuous cultivation and the susceptibility to diseases made cane-
producing countries start improvement programs aiming to cross the species
S. officinarum with other species rich in saccharose, but resistant to the present
diseases. So, the canes planted nowadays are referred to as Saccharum spp. and not
only S. officinarum [ 5 ].
The centers of the origin of these species are hypothesized to be the islands of the
Polynesian archipelago, New Guinea and India. It has been proposed that the
sugarcane may be a native from Southwest Asia. The centers where the major
diversity of some species is found include New Guinea for S. officinarum and
S. robustum , China for S. sinense , and Northern India for S. barberi [ 4 ].
The domestication process of the cane is believed to have begun with the Muslim
expansion introducing the crop in areas where it has not been previously cultivated.
People originating from regions in Syria and Iraq, in their travels and conquests
when they occupied the South and East Mediterranean, brought their culture
including animals and plants; the cane was cultivated in the gardens of their
palaces. In the ancient times, sugar was extremely rare and expensive. It was a
product from pharmacies and consumed exclusively by kings and nobles. The
Genoese merchants were the source of the sugar supply since the peak of the
dominion of the Roman Empire over the Orient and held the monopoly of com-
mercial relations. With the commercial expansion of merchandise coming from the
Orient, Europe came to know the sugarcane. In the European continent, sugarcane
was cultivated in Spain and then later brought to the Americas during the maritime
expansion and was cultivated in countries such as Brazil, Cuba, Mexico, Peru,
Ecuador, Colombia, and Venezuela [ 6 ].
In Brazil, the first cane seedlings were brought from the Madeira Island by
Martin Afonso de Souza in 1532, and three sugar mills were built by 1534. The
crop's cultivation area expanded and Brazil started to lead the worldwide sugarcane
production in 1650 but later lost its top position to India in the seventeenth century
[ 7 ]. In the twentieth century, Brazil recovered its leadership and currently being
considered as the world's largest sugar producer.
The first utilization of sugarcane was for food, later on as fuel for ethanol
production and pharmaceutical industries producing anhydrous and hydrous alco-
hol. Right now, besides these products, cane is seen as source of raw materials for
waxes, insulation materials, pure alcohol, paper, medium-density fiberboard panels,
vegetable hormones, and plastics, as well as being used to generate electric
power [ 8 ].
Areas of Production
Sugarcane is the main crop for sugar production, covering 22 million hectares
worldwide. Brazil and India are the main producers which account for 60 % of
the world's cane production. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization